Blog

Jun28

System restore

Posted at: 02:54 By: Rajeev Shukla

Within hours of winning the UP elections, the new Chief Minister Mayawati initiated action against corrupt politicians in the state. In my view, she should come down equally heavily on the main conduits of corruption in the state, namely the senior bureaucrats who worked hand in glove with the politicians. The previous government nurtured senior IAS officers posted in Noida and Greater Noida and UPSIDC, whose only duty was to cook land-grab deals with builders and industrialists, get them expedited and make millions for themselves and their politician bosses in the process.

These officials were the originator of all suspicious land deals done in Noida and Greater Noida in the last two years. There is not a single deal done by them which cannot or need not be investigated. In my view, Mayawati should immediately initiate investigations against them. Their multiple visits abroad and the purpose of such visits must also be investigated. The government owes this action to the honest bureaucrats in the state, whose morale should be upheld and an example should be set.

Noida and Greater Noida was colonized to provide affordable housing for lower and middle-class people who could no longer afford houses in Delhi. A small clique of these corrupt IAS officers has ensured that a house in Noida today costs more than one in south Delhi. There are reports that these officers took commission as hefty as Rs. 1,000 per square metre from builders for the land deals and even sold plots earmarked for IT and software companies to various liquor barons.